390 Nor when, eternal sure, as without end, Without beginning; for no date prefix'd Directs me in the starry rubric set.

So say'ing he took (for still he knew his power Not yet expir'd) and to the wilderness

395 Brought back the Son of God, and left him there, Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose, As day-light sunk, and brought in low’ring night Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both, Privation mere of light and absent day. Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind After his aery jaunt, though hurried sore, Hungry and cold betook him to his rest, Wherever, under some concourse of shades, Whose branching arms thick intertwin'd might shield From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head, 406 But shelter'd slept in vain, for at his head The Tempter watch'd, and soon with ugly dreams

barbarous treatment, he shall be Compare the very remarkable crucified.” Dunster. description of the fate which 399.-unsubstantial both,] His Plato says it is easy to foresee philosophy is here ill placed. It will attend the Just Man. De dashes out the image he had just Repub. lib. ii. p. 361. ed. Serran. been painting. Warburton. o dixemos pasuy nostal, otgewortel, 408. and soon with ugly dednosta! - TEAEVTWY TATA rand dreams &c.] It is remarkable, kuin aver Xindentu noeteld. “The that the poet made the Devil beJust Man shall be scourged, gin his temptation of Eve by

Disturb’d his sleep; and either tropic now . Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n, the clouds 410

desires.

working on her imagination in de zorgos votor, agiotipe. ld. de Isid. dreams, and to end his tempt. p. 363. If by either tropic be ation of Jesus in that manner. meant the right side and the left, I leave it to the critics to find by both ends of heaven may be out the reason; for I will ven- understood, before and behind. ture to say he had a very good I know it may be objected, that one. Warburton.

the tropics cannot be the one It may be observed, that the the right side, and the other the Tempter here tries only “ to left, to those who are placed withdisturb our Lord with ugly out the tropics: but I do not dreams," and not to excite in think that objection to be very him, as in Eve,

material. I have another expoVain hopes, vain aims, inordinate

sition to offer, which is thus: It

thundered all along the heaven,

Dunster. from the north pole to the tropic 409. and either tropic. nou

of Cancer, from thence to the 'Gan thunder, and both ends of

tropic of Capricorn, from thence heav'n, the clouds &c.]

to the south pole. From pole to

pole. The ends of heaven are the Place the stops thus:

poles. This is a poetical temand either tropic now

pest, like that in Virgil, Æn. i. 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n. + The clouds &c.

Intonuere poli It thundered from both tropics, Id est extremæ partes cæli — that is, perhaps, from the right & quibus totum cælum contonuand from the left. The ancients isse significat. Servius. Jortin. had very different opinions con. Mr. Sympson proposes to read cerning the right and the left and point the passage thus; side of the world. Plutarch says,

-and either tropic now that Aristotle, Plato, and Pytha 'Gan thunder ; at both ends of heav'n goras were of opinion, that the the clouds &c. east is the right side, and the west the left; but that Empedo

Mr. Meadowcourt points it thus; cles held that the right side is and either tropic now towards the summer tropic, and 'Gan thunder, and both ends of the left towards the winter tro

heav'n: the clouds &c. pic. Mulayogas, Inatur, Agoto- But after all I am still for preTEAMS, digne Tov xoduou ta avatoire serving Milton's own punctupien, a wy on aex Tns rivales also ation, unless there be very good aripa do, tu dutina. Euridorang reason for departing from it, and dožia pasy TH KATA TOY Bagirov rgotinor I understand the passage thus: αριστερα δε τα κατα τον χειμερινο». and either tropic now 'gan thunder, De Placit. Philos. ii. 10. Aiguation it thundered from the north and OLOITETH HEY iwa, TOV XOCHOU porn from the south, for this I conTo stvoll, Ta de teos Bogbay, držia, T06 ceive to be Milton's meaning,

From many a horrid rift abortive pour'd Fierce rain with lightning mix’d, water with fire In ruin reconcild: nor slept the winds

though the expression is inaccu- style. Neither are such storms rate, the situation of our Saviour confined, as Mr. Thyer supposes, and Satan being not within the to tropical regions. I was a wit. tropics: and both ends of heaven, ness of one in the northern part that is, and from or at both ends of Germany, lat. 52. which was of heaven, the preposition being every thing the poet has here omitted, as is frequent in Milton, described: the wind was to the and several instances were given full as tremendous as the thunin the notes on the Paradise Lost. der and lightning, and, like them, See particularly Dr. Pearce's note seemed to come from every point on i. 282. and from both ends of of the heavens at once. Dunster. heaven, the clouds &c. This storm 412. - water with fire is described very much like one In ruin reconcild:] in Tasso, which was raised in That is, joining together to do the same manner by evil spirits. hurt. Warburton. See Canto vii. st. 114, 115. This bold figure our poet has

409. Most probably, as Mr. borrowed from Æschylus, where Dunster says, by either tropic he is describing the storm, which Milton meant the north and scattered the Grecian fleet. Agasouth, and by both ends of heaven memnon. ver. 659. the east and west ; “as his pur

Luiwyoray gag, OYTIS Xbotoi Toten, pose is to describe a general Πυρ και θαλασσα, και τα σισσ' εδειξα. storm coming from every point tny, of the horizon at once." "But I liporti for duOTNION Agrow otputov. see no reason for supposing the preposition from or at omitted; Or perhaps it means only water the syntax is exact without it. and fire falling down both togeE.

ther, according to Milton's usage 410.

the clouds of the word ruin in Paradise From many a horrid rift, abor- Lost, i. 46. vi. 868. tive pour'd

Æolii jacuisse Notum sub carcere bus ignes. This storm of Milton will lose Crediderim. nothing by a comparison with And Lucretius, lib. vi. the celebrated ones of Homer in his fifth Odyssey, and of Virgil

Speluncasque velut saxis pendentibus

structas in his first Æneid. It is painted

Cernere, quas venti quem, tempestate from nature, and in the boldest

Thyer.

coorta,

415

Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad From the four hinges of the world, and fell On the vex'd wilderness, whose tallest pines, Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts, Or torn up sheer: ill wast thou shrouded then, O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st Unshaken; nor yet stay'd the terror there,

- Και επειδηπες ημεραις τεσσαρα415. From the four hinges of XOVTH, xa1 TALIS TOTAUTIS TUŽuv Tuisthe world,] That is, from the four (iTo. And to these night tempt. cardinal points, the word cardines ations he applies what is said in signifying both the one and the the ninety-first Psalm, v. 5. and other. This, as was observed be. 6. Ou poononon ato pobou yoxtiginou, fore, is a poetical tempest like Thou shalt not be afraid for any that in Virgil, Æn. i. 85. terror by night, -απο πραγματος Unà Eurusque Notusque ruunt, cre- IV CROTU dietolivousvov, nor for the berque procellis

danger that walketh in darkness. Africus

The first is thus paraphrased in And as Mr. Thyer adds, though the Targum, (though with a such storms are unknown to us meaning very different from Euin these parts of the world, yet sebius's,) Non timebis à timore the accounts we have of hurri. Dæmonum qui ambulant in nocanes in the Indies agree pretty

cte. cte.

The fiends surround our

The ne much with them.

Redeemer with their threats and 417. Though rooted deep as terrors; but they have no effect. high,] Virgil, Georg. ii. 291. Æn. Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, iv. 445.

is predicted in the seventh verse Milton seems to have raised this of this Psalm: A thousand shall scene out of what he found in fall beside thee, and ten thousand Eusebius de Dem. Evan. lib. ix. at thy right hand, but it shall not (vol. ii. p. 434. ed. Col.] The come nigh thee. Calton.

tendit.

Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round Environ’d thee, some howld, some yell’d, some shriek d, Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou Sat’st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace. Thus pass'd the night so foul, till morning fair

422. Infernal ghosts, &c.] This As there is a storm raised by is taken from the legend or the evil spirits in Tasso as well as pictures of St. Anthony's tempt- in Milton, so a fine morning ation. Warburton.

succeeds after the one as well as From a print which I have after the other. See Tasso, cant. seen of the temptation of St. viii. st. 1. But there the mornAnthony. Jortin.

as Milton describes her progress Some spirits howld, some bark’d, more leisurely, first the gray some hist, some cride.

morning, and afterwards the sun It is where Armida, returning rising: with pilgrim steps, with to destroy her palace, assembles the slow solemn pace of a pilher attendant spirits in a storm. grim on a journey of devotion; Indeed, the circumstances and in amice gray, in gray clothing; behaviour of Christ in this haunt. amice, a proper and significant ed wilderness, are exactly like word, derived from the Latin those of the Christian champions amicio to clothe, and used by in Tasso's inchanted forest, who Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. calmly view, and without resist- iv. st. 18. ance, the threats and attacks of Array'd in habit black, and amice a surrounding group of the thin, most horrid demons. See c. xiii. Like to an holy monk, the service to 28, 35. Milton adds,

begin. Some bent at thee their fiery darts, 426. Amice gray is the graius while thou

amiclus in the Roman ritual. MilSat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless

ton, notwithstanding his abhorpeace.

T. Warton.

rence of every thing that related

to superstition, often dresses his 424. their fiery darts,] Eph.

imaginary beings in the habits vi. 16. the fiery darts of the wicked.

of popery. But poetry is of all The contrast which the next line, religions?

line, religions; and popery is a very Sat'st unappalld &c. gives to the

de poetical one. So Comus, 188. preceding description of the horrors of the storm, has a singularly

-when the gray-hooded even fine effect. Dunster.

Like a sad volarist in palmer's weed. 426. -till morning fair His Melancholy also is a pensive Came forth &c.]